PSU begins second year of RecycleMania competition

Portland State is in 14th place for waste minimization after the fourth week of the nationwide RecycleMania competition, a recycling event designed to promote sustainability and waste management.

RecycleMania is a 10-week event that stages various competitions over recycled materials and waste minimization, with both categories graded on a per capita scale. The final results are ranked by which of over 200 universities recycle the most material and by which produce the least amount of solid waste per student.

The current standings show Portland State in 14th place for waste minimization, with the average student discarding 24.87 pounds of waste so far during competition. Portland Community College’s Rock Creek campus is currently leading the waste minimization category nationally at 0.94 pounds of waste per student.

PSU began participating during last year’s competition. RecycleMania is currently in its sixth year.

Sarah Keirns, a graduate student in the sustainability department and PSU’s organizer of recycling and waste data for RecycleMania 2007, said that student involvement has remained mostly unchanged since last year. She also said that PSU has a good chance to rank in the top five for waste minimization by the end of this year’s competition.

“I think that waste management is the most important category of RecycleMania and that it really comes down to the amount of individual effort that every student contributes,” Keirns said.

The top five schools for each category are listed as the winners at the end of RecycleMania. To rank in the top five, over the next six weeks PSU will need to reduce the current per student average by 10 pounds. The 2007 competition will end on April 7.

Keirns organizes the data for recycled materials and total waste that is reported by TrashCo, a Portland-based trash removal company. The numbers are then figured for full-time student population according to a formula created by RecycleMania. PSU is participating with a total full-time population of 16,965 students.

With more than 200 total universities participating this year, the competition has increased by around 90 participants since last year. PSU placed fourth in waste minimization last year, with a total of 38.4 pounds of waste per student.

Oregon State University led the student per capita competition in recycling for the 2006 event, with the average student recycling 91.35 pounds of material during the 10-week event.

PSU freshman Elise Jacks, 18, said that she has noticed RecycleMania getting lots of attention around campus and said that she enjoys hearing the status updates each week. She said that she has made an effort to utilize the recycling resources in the class buildings and her residence hall, the Broadway Housing Building, since the competition began.

“I figure that now would be the best time to use that blue crate they gave me,” Jacks said, referring to the complimentary recycling bin offered to Broadway residents. “It’s really cool to feel like I am doing my part to help move PSU up the charts.”

Keirns also works with PSU Recycles!, a group that promotes regular recycling by placing bins throughout the resident and academic halls. PSU Recycles! is the group that donates the complimentary blue bins to Broadway residents.

Keirns said that the group has improved RecycleMania outreach this year by placing more ads in the Vanguard and increasing the amount of fliers on campus advertising the competition.

“It’s great to see that so many students are responding to RecycleMania and making an effort,” Keirns said.

Noelle Studer, PCC’s sustainability coordinator, said that Rock Creek and PSU must both face the issue of being a commuter campus, and that a sense of community pride and awareness is essential to their success in RecycleMania.

“RecycleMania is an entirely student-led effort,” Studer said. “PCC Rock Creek just wants to decrease the total amount of waste we generate.”

Studer said that PCC hopes to help the Portland metro area reach its goal of a 64 percent total recycling rate by 2009.

Eastern Oregon University, the Oregon Institute of Technology, and the University of Oregon are also participating in the program this year. The University of Oregon is currently placed third in per capita recycling, at 28.73 pounds per student.

RecycleMania posts a list of participating schools and updates the results chart at the end of each week. The current leaders of this year’s competition and other information about RecycleMania can be found at www.recyclemaniacs.org.